"The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it." ― V.S. Naipaul, A Bend in the River

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Hair and the Indian

Hair
now and gone tomorrow. That’s the story of hair, in short, for most Indians. In
between (one is telescoping time here), there is a long struggle to hold on to
the heritage one is born with it. Most fail at it, but some go to incredible
lengths to preserve the luxuriant foliage on one’s pate.

Both
Indian men and women love their hair, but women obviously love them more. Long
tresses that are shiny and healthy are a mark of good health and beauty.
Traditionally, Indian men like women who have black and long hair. Indian
poetry is full of praise for the long-tressed beauty. Look at the Indian film
actresses: from the beginning of cinema, they have sported long hair, and their
dense, silky locks have set nationwide trends in hairstyles. Remember the fringe
of actress Sadhna (popularly known as the Sadhna cut) in the 1960s? Or for men,
the Dev Anand style ‘puff’ hair, the Amitabh Bachchan style middle-parted hair
or more recently, Salman Khan and Amir Khan’s ever-changing hairstyles? They
have been ardently copied by their countrymen.

While
both men and women in India loved their hair, the fact is that men cared a
little less about maintaining their hair. Even though they wanted their hair to
be thick, black, and luxuriant, they didn’t do much about it. There was a time,
when a ‘champi’ (hair oil massage) was all that a man needed, and even today,
hair oil is an everyday habit with about 50 percent of the population. Older
men put henna in their hair. Over the decades, however, as with their interest,
their options have evolved. Now they have a variety of oils, shampoos,
conditioners, and post wash products to choose from. In addition, most Indian men
turn to dyes to hide their grey hair when they begin to age.

A
testimony to this Indian obsession with hair is the growing hair care market. According
to industry figures, the size of the hair care market is Rs 13,000 crore
(US$2413 million), of which Rs 6664 crore (US$1237) is the size of the hair oil
market alone. This is such a huge market that top Bollywood actors like Shah
Rukh Khan, Rani Mukherjee, and Amitabh Bachchan have been endorsing hair oil
brands, earning crores of rupees in fees.

“In
the last five years, the hair oil industry has been registering healthy double
digit growth mainly due to increasing hair damages due to lifestyle and
environmental changes,” Minoo Phakey, marketing head, hair oil, Dabur India,
told an Indian newspaper.[1]

But
many Indian men don’t stop with hair oil when it comes to preserving their
youthful look. They are turning to even hair weaving and hair transplant
treatments, even though these are highly expensive procedures. A typical hair
transplant, a painful process, costs about Rs. 1.5 lakh (about $4,000). Today
when incomes have risen in India, well-to-do men can afford such treatments.
Thankfully, there is no dearth of role models for them: Akshaye Khanna, Sunny
Deol, Dharmendra, Rajnikanth, Salman Khan and Amitabh Bachchan from the
Bollywood brigade and Virendra Sehwag, Ravi Shastri and Harsha Bhogle from the
cricketing world have all gone for hair weaving and transplants at some point
of their career.

From
Hair to Eternity—Hair and rituals in Indian culture

In
a deeply religious and spiritual country like India, hair is not just a part of one’s outer
personality. It has its own spiritual dimensions. For Sikh men, for example, maintaining
their hair and keeping their beard is part of their religious identity. Both
Hindus and Muslims in India shave off their hair at different points of time
for spiritual reasons and it starts right after birth. Muslims shave off their
children’s birth hair within weeks after their birth and donate in charity gold
or silver equal in weight to the hair.

For
Hindus, the hair from birth is associated with undesirable traits from past
lives. So, it is believed that the child’s ‘mundan’ ritual frees him or her of
her past. Hindu men go for a tonsure when they lose a parent.

Hindus
also offer their hair as a sacrifice to their gods, and they do it for a variety
of reasons, ranging from seeking good luck and riches to ward off sickness and unfavourable
circumstances. The practice is common in southern India, especially at temples such as the famous
Tirumala Venkateswara Temple of Lord Vishnu, where people flock from all parts
of India to be shaved.

Splitting
the hair

Where
does all this hair go? That is a million dollar question. That brings us to the
world of the big business of hair. Temple hair donation has made India the world leader in the hair extension trade.

When
devotees offer their hair to the gods, temples auction them off to wholesalers,
who in turn export them to countries like the US and the UK where demand for Indian hair is high— Hollywood actresses such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Kim
Kardashian have pushed up demand for hair extensions. Hair extensions make
women feel glamorous—that’s the prevailing belief.

The
practice of selling human hair is a good source of income for the temples. The
money raised is used for charitable activities. And the prices are good: one
kilogram of Indian hair can bring in as much as $250 on average; it would have
fetched $20 15 years ago, according to a people in the trade. Last year
Tirumala temple, apparently made 2,000m rupees (more than £22m), from
auctioning hair[2].

So,
there is more to hair than what meets the eyes. For Indians, hair is not just a
matter of beauty and good looks, it is also a symbol of devotion. It can be
safely said that as India evolves and redefines its culture, the Indian
love affair with hair will continue. Probably we will see more funky hairdos in
India but the fashion police will also be equally
ruthless.

Hair is big business

Today,
hair is big business the world over. Both the young and the old in the West
turn to hair extensions and hair addition. The young go for coloured extensions
while the middle-aged ladies opt for it to create a glamorous effect.

According
to approximate figures from U.N. Comtrade, the U.S. imported over US$900
million-worth of wigs, false beards, eyebrows, eyelashes and similar products
in 2010, while the U.K. imported $79 million-worth and China and Hong Kong $71
million.

There
is high demand for Indian hair for wig making and hair extensions. According to
a report in the Wall Street Journal, India exported $190 million-worth of hair and related
hair products in 2009-10 and could more than double that to $470 million by
2013-14. The newspaper sourced these figures from the Department for Commerce
and Industry, Government of India.

Indian
hair is preferred because it is both “thin and strong”. Indian temple hair is
valued because, according to one report, most of the temple hair donors are
rural women. In most cases, their hair has never been dyed, blow-dried, or even
cut.

The
temples first sort the donated hair and then sell it through online auctions.
According to Chennai-based Curlsnwaves, one of the country’s largest exporters
of hair, the acquired hair is first processed, stripped of colour and re-dyed
before being exported.

Hair
extension is not just a fashion abroad—Indian women are also embracing it. “Hair
is the first thing an Indian woman would look after,” says a Mumbai-based
hairstylist in the Aljazeera documenrtaty film, Witness—Hair India. “More than her skin. Indian woman are obsessed
with length. They all like to have their hair extended.”

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